RIM responds to reports of poor PlayBook sales, high return rate at major retailer

RIM just reached out to us with a statement regarding our post from this morning in which we reported that a big box retailer provided us with information surrounding BlackBerry PlayBook sales and returns. RIM’s response is as follows:

The source of the reported comment is anonymous and unknown to RIM, but the comment is certainly inconsistent with the positive feedback we have received from our main retail partners. As previously indicated, RIM will provide a business update on BlackBerry PlayBook results on June 16.

For reference, here is a public statement recently offered by Best Buy:

“Best Buy has had great success selling BlackBerry smartphones in North America, so our sales expectations for the BlackBerry PlayBook were very high. To date, we have far exceeded those expectations and we’re finding that customers are even more interested in purchasing once they’ve tested the PlayBook in the store.”

While we appreciate RIM’s comment and we have no doubt that PlayBook sales at Best Buy have exceeded expectations, we stand by our source and our story from earlier today.

Played with it for 30 min in a BB. I was already familiar with the swipe controls, (thanks YouTube) so that was not an issue for me. Functionally, I did not see anything that really set this product apart from the various Android based offerings currently out there. It seems to be a mix between the Android OS UI experience, the iOS UI experience and the WebOS UI experience. It multi-tasks well, for the things that it actually does multi-task, when minimized in the the panes. I noticed that I could not get more than 6-8 things running in the panes (card in webOS speak), before it rolled off the oldest one. I did not see anything like Widget support, so basically it is a Honeycomb like iOS App launcher system that utilizes WebOS like gestures

If found it to be nice but currently lacking any real productive apps. The browser had some issues on the display model, that I tested. I could not play a heavy duty Adobe Flash video very well from within the browser, I noticed what looked like video tearing on some of the panes that were paused when task switching. This completely obscured the image of was was in that pane until it was selected and at animated to full screen again. I did find the unit to be very smooth and responsive overall, with the only exception being heavy multi-tasking load, when I tried to see how many apps I could open at the same time in rapid succession Then the system bogged down to the point that I had to reset it.

The rear camera is surprisingly good, when tested using the in-store lighting and it makes acceptable video clips.

I would call this a good first attempt at this point and I look forward to seeing just where this product is going to go. Hopefully it will not be the “Round File.” :p

4glte

The traffic for the playbook at Best Buy was very high the day I went in to test it out. I was a little disappointed that the wifi connection was slow and portrayed the playbook in a negative light. I had to use my hotspot to get it to work without freeze-up, most likely Best Buys 6 macbooks on display and its users were hogging he bandwidth that day. I didn’t buy on the spot but after 2 weeks I ordered online to avoid the in-store traffic. But the point is that I did buy and if 10% of lookers did as I did then the playbook will end up a success.

Anonymous

I love how BGR virtually kicked RIM in the balls with the last sentence in this article. Bravo.

Jettgerbil

“We stand by our source and our story from earlier today.”
So if your source is so solid, who is it. If it is a “fact” they would not be afraid to be mentioned. Hey they have nothing to lose with your logic, as they are not making any money selling the Playbook, so why not come clean as to who they are.
For the love of “Walter Cronkite”, what has become of real journalism….another hack existing on rumour and baseless gossip….If you don’t have real news -create something to catch peoples attention.

My final word on this…. do you really think that RIM would state in Print that, it would show figures on June 16th, that will more or less substantiate the stated numbers if not exactly at least relatively closely.
Of course knowing the kind of “yellow journalism” that this site runs, you will no doubt try to say that a multi billion $ corporation with 10’s of thousands of employees with oversight by at least 3 of the major banks in the world,is lying.
This is my last post on this site…I will no longer read anything on BGR, and be assured that I will make sure everyone I know and everyone they know won’t either….my suggestion for anyone that reads my Blog…stand up for truth in journalism and don’t return to BGR….EVER

http://twitter.com/Dodgerblue Dodgerblue

GOOD one less idiot but I bet you continue to visit this site like the closeted homo you are!!!!!

Anonymous

What BGR is basically stating is someone high-up in the retail channel at Office Depot, OfficeMax, Radio Shack, or Staples said this. Can’t be Best Buy since they already gave their official statement. Likely not Staples since they have had the largest inventory and most pre-sales so far. So BGR is pretty much pointing fingers at Office Depot, Office Max, or Radio Shack. I think the issue may not be that the Playbook is not selling, just that people would rather buy it from Best Buy over Radio Shack for example.

Marktexas

i wasn’t aware one retailer equaled the measure of a products success / failure. Since this retailer cannot be named its not someone at the level of Best Buy. I’m guessing Sears as who even buys electronics there?

The other trend are morons like Steve who don’t give a crap about Blackberry and are just shorting the stock. People like Steve are scum short sellers. Some two bit day trader trying to be someone.

I’d like to see RIM buyback more stock and go private so all the market manipulators can get burned.

Apple must be feeling some heat, these articles comeup ever few days to keep the focus negative.

Big_redfox

Total BS. I first saw the PlayBook in local Frys Electronics, next to all other tablets, ranging from $150 AOC to $899 XOOM. Guess what? The PlayBook looks very similar to the $150-$200 ones, based on build quality and exterior design. The tab with best build quality is Samsung Galaxy and Moto Xoom.

There are typically a lot of foot traffic in the tablet area during weekend in Frys. I was there playing Xoom for a good 30 min. Not even one person came to play with the PlayBook. Many came and saw the $499 price and walked away. They must have thought it should be $200.

http://profiles.google.com/kmbear Kevin Bear

Playbook sales have been nonexistent where I work.

Anonymous

opposite at my local staples. they have fast inventory turnover, but it’s also located in the financial district and Playbook has a lot of traction amongst the finance sector where I work. I don’t expect sales to be as high in a residential area.

http://twitter.com/Dodgerblue Dodgerblue

how can he be full of crap on his experience with it?

Anonymous

RIM can’t catch a break.

Anonymous

I believe BGR, and not the RIM losers

scott

all company’s trying to cash in on the tablet market. someone will fall short, but falling short does not mean a
bad thing for these company’s ( stocks). the one that hurts the most is the consumer. they just make another one and u will be stuck with the bag!!!! stocks will be good for them! just make product!

Funcy333

In
smartphone market, RIM was accounting for 44% of the market share 1.5 years
ago, and now it is accounting for only 25% (and should continue to drop at the
same speed). If you seek at persons that want to buy RIM/Blackberry
smartphones, it is now less than 10%. And as the Android market share will be
continuously growing, Blackberry smartphones should continue to drop.

For
tablets, it is logical to think that it is harder to sell these tablets if the
number of persons interested in RIM OS is dropping every day. Persons who own
IOS are buying Apple tablets, people who own Android device will buy ANDROID
tablets, and other people will mainly choose between IOS and ANDROID.

The
situation for RIM now is similar to the situation for PALM a few years ago.

http://twitter.com/FrankJL_ Francisco J. Lopez

Yeah because that sinking ship would actually come out and say “The playbook does suck, go somewhere else”

Statements from the company are so fucking pointless. The truth of the matter is simple.
I have 5 close friends they all tried the playbook. 1 ended buying it and returned it 2 days later.

Now based on that analysis of 5 individuals the success rate for blackberry is 0%.

Martin

if all 5 of your friends look as gay as you do in your avatar it all makes sense, you should go gobble some steve jobs wang

sirpaul

I’m getting so sick of all the Apple-loving coming from BGR. This was a very different website when I started reading.

LemonadeJoe

I don’t see Apple mentioned once in the article – Did I miss it?

sirpaul

Naw man, but this whole Apple-loving, everything-else-bashing is a bit ridiculous. I still enjoy BGR, but liking it less and less as time goes on, unfortunately. I love reading Apple posts just as much as the next person, but there’s a limit that I believe BGR has crossed. Same goes for the crazy bias on this website.

And here come the “if you don’t like it don’t read it” comments. Guys, I do enjoy BGR. But it could use some improvements!

brdl04

I have an anonymous source, that told me that according to a certain retailer, the playbook has been a huge success……. Post it!

http://twitter.com/jettaandy Andy Stratis

I have the playbook and for a 7 inch tablet it is awesome. I have not had any issues with it at all.
It is fast and quite responsive. Its great that you can bridge it to your bberry cell phone at no charge for extra data. ATT customers cant bridge yet but from what I have read that should be coming soon. Videos look great and the video conference is pretty cool. Because ut runs flash web pages look the same as on your desk top.
Anyway, in closing I love the playbook,do not hesitate to purchase it.

Prajith Nair

Just a quick update – Blackberry now offers the Bridge OTA via BB Desktop Manager – so AT&T users dont need to wait around till its shows up on APP world.

Andrazielcain

it’s not a surprise, since bgr has known for it’s support with apple product, it seems like any other brands are not good enough to match with good report from bgr

AnabolicThrasher

PlayBook is the best. If you can’t think outside the box or figure out how to use a device that doesn’t have a stupid button to go home then go with the sheep and keep sucking that Steve Jobs knob…

Anonymous

RIM is trying to use an old marketing technique. Make people think it’s selling Great so everyone will want one. Same thing Samsung did with the tab until the truth came out.

Instead of standing on their own 2 feet and selling a great product, Their whole Marketing strategy was to trash the iPad. For that alone they should fail.

Francis

BGR didn’t deserve a response from RIM on their baseless article with no integrity

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_47XHGLZVO6IUYLMWVUYFVN5LQU Dr No

But they got a response…what does that tell you?

Anonymous

Dear BGR,

If you continue post unsourced messages I will hack your site whitout breaking a sweat. This is no joke or bluff. Stop with this or verily, this site will go offline.

Greet,s,

Anonymous

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_47XHGLZVO6IUYLMWVUYFVN5LQU Dr No

OH TEH NOES HAX0R GONNA GET YOU BGR!!!!!11!!!1!!!

Anonymous

Of course BGR would stand by their unnamed anonymous source. As long as its negative to RIM, they’ll believe anything.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_47XHGLZVO6IUYLMWVUYFVN5LQU Dr No

Cry more, fanboy.

Anonymous

Yeah, I definitely own a blackberry playbook. I won it at the Playbook launch in NYC. I hate it.

I am selling it for $350.00 on craigslist in perfect condition and absolutely no one wants it!!! All I want to do is get a little cash so I can buy an iPad 2, you know, the tablet that actually works.

I am assuming that the high return rate is coming from people who turn the thing on, take a couple of photos and realize that because they don’t own a blackberry phone they can’t actually e-mail the photos. They are probably tired of trying to turn the screen off with the tiny useless power button only for the damn thing to turn back on when they so much as pick it up!

Oh, and it doesn’t support Jpeg’s downloaded from dropbox?

The thing is pocketable, but that’s damn near it.

The Blackberry Playbook is a huge failure.

Devon2000

Oh yeah? how many gigs is it? I will buy it from you, will even give you an extra $50

Ggg5gebhardt

There must be something to it as I know someone who works at Best Buy and the sales were not near where they thought they would be. They have committed to more units but have place no more units. She also said return rate was HIGH! I know the hurts the PB Fan Boys but she has no reason to lie and I could care less.